So I told people before I left for Germany that I would blog about it but wasn't sure I actually would.  While it's fascinating to me, and perhaps interesting to those I spoke to, it's not something incredibly new.  Any blog of the hundreds of people that come to live in Germany every year will have many of the same observations and I don't want to redundant.  
But okay, I'll do a little blogging because why not.
 
Wies'n Oktoberfest!  Took us 2.5 hours to get into this beer tent and we got there at 10:15am!

I am living (and working) in Munich.   A lot of things are different in Germany than they are in America/Buffalo, NY... this is probably a pretty duh statement.   I have been here about a month, and will be here at least a year.  The more easily observed things:

-Escalators stop moving when no one is on them.    They start moving when you get to the bottom or top

-The s-bahn system (like a subway?) took a little getting used to because it lists one of the very last stops as the direction.   Now that I'm used to this way I can't actually remember how it was in NY, but I remember it wasn't like... a system where you had to memorize the names of random places you're never going to go to, just so that you know if that's the U5 heading toward home, or toward the city (Wolfrathausen and Holzkirchen are usually what mine say to get to/from home, but even the directional city they list will change sometime, so it'll say "S7 Aying" and this means exactly the same thing as "S7 Holzkirchen").

-Window blinds- at least in my house, and others I've been to- are automated.   At a certain hour every night, they will draw out of the wall (freaked me out the first time I heard them)


from when we went to Salzburg, Austria (right across the border)

-eggs are not refrigerated.   In general, the layout of grocery stores is a little different than what I'm used to.   Still logical, but sometimes I just like knowing that this item is placed next to this item... you know?   I think it's funny that they also sell eggs pre-hardboiled (and dyed colors so that you know the difference)

-Most houses are constructed out of cement, and wood is considered to be an inferior building material

-Most people speak English here, although no one will speak it unless you specifically address them with it.   Obviously Germans prefer German.    My German is pretty awful, I'm trying to get better but it's difficult to use it in conversation since I can labor over asking a question the right way but as soon as someone answers they might as well be saying, "whrd2323 jfjJINN?"   And then I'm like "Wie bitte... ah... Sprechen Sie Englisch?"

Marienplatz is pretty well known, at the center of the city

-I'm always very interested in the parts of language that aren't necessarily... translated, but as still a very real reflection of culture and language.   Like the word "genau" is used here very frequently in conversation.   It most nearly means "exactly," but I feel like there is something lost in straight translations like this.   Because in English we don't say "exactly" anywhere near as frequently.    I guess it's probably not that interesting but it makes me wonder if in German culture there is a slightly stronger emphasis on letting people know when they're "correct"  ?  

-People don't do as much stranger-pleasantry here.   I didn't notice until my host mom asked me if I noticed if people smile more or less than in Buffalo, and I wasn't sure which was the right answer so I said that Buffalonians are known for their friendliness, and then she told me how one thing she hated about German culture is how people won't smile or say hi to you if you smile at them while biking, walking or on the subway, whatever.    So now I do notice, but I guess I sort of prefer this way.   It's not that I don't smile- I usually do, especially if someone smiles toward me- but I like that I don't feel obligated to do it and that everyone is kind of like, "For reals... who cares about that."

town in the alps one of my kids has hockey practice in, once a week

-Kind of sad, but no one thinks America is as great, as America thinks it is.    They seem to view America as a falling power, experiencing the sort of ups and downs every country over here has had for the last several hundred years.    Since my host mom is originally Canadian I read a Canadian news magazine during the week, and I read an interesting piece that critiqued the system of checks and balances in America as spreading power out so equally that it takes forever to accomplish simple legislation, and consequently the country cannot move/change fast enough politically.    Which I think a lot of us in America would agree with, but the article also pointed out that our entire check and balance system centers around the dated idea that the biggest threat to our country is a monarch or emerging dictator, and so our entire government is, at its very core, not able to adequately respond to our more present and real threats.    It was just a very different way of looking at the constitution from how we were taught it in school. 

we went to the munich zoo

-toilets do not usually flush via a handle, but by the same mechanisms room lights employ (a sort of...balance beam?)

-pretzels are super popular here (Bavaria- lower Germany).    They usually cost about .50 euro.   It's also popular to have them split down the middle and buttered, which is more like 1 euro.   In Salzburg, Austria they had some delicious looking gigantic, head sized pretzels in all sorts of sweet flavors for 3 euro (still regretting not buying one!).

-There are a fair number of Turkish people living in Germany, so there are a lot of Turkish Imbisses.   (Restaurant/cafe?   Not sure exactly how that translates)   You can get a vegetarian kabob which is like... a bunch of good stuff in a pita.


-Cafes/Backereis/Konditereis are enormously popular here.     I limit myself but try to go to a different cafe at least once a week to try the different breads, sweets, and coffee.   Coffee is a little more expensive per cup, on average, than in the states, but it also is usually better quality.    The bakery goods are both cheap and delicious.

-Starbucks is very popular here as well, although I don't even know how they do it.   Their prices are the same as in America, but we use the Euro here, so they're actually making a lot more money from every 4 euro frappucino.    They also are kind enough to have a free takeaway city map in their stores, that points out where all the Munich Starbucks are located, haha.


where I wait for the s7 to get into the city

-Tax is included in the price of everything you buy and they round the numbers, which is incredibly brilliant because you don't have to do random head calculations trying to figure out the cost of everything, and you also end up with a lot less small change (which I imagine saves the government money since metal change tends to be costly to produce!).   
And tipping isn't mandatory- they generally recommend that you round up for bills (like for a 6.50 euro dinner bill, you'd pay 7) but if you don't do it it's not horrible or anything.   This also makes restaurants a lot more enjoyable for me because I don't have to be trying to figure out how much I'm really going to pay in taxes and tip when I'm looking at what to buy (always an issue in America!).  The price is exactly the price as stated.

More observations to come later...
~M

absolutely not!  Let’s get rid of all the straight-acting characters too!   That way we’re just left with discovery channel (sans the shows that involve animals mating, of course, because that is so wrong) and occassional HGTV.   This will not only be good for kids, but good for Christians, who do not like sinners shoved in their faces, especially when we’re defining “sin” as “very specific aspects of what we consider sin and actually we’re okay with most sinning and will not protest it.”   Because as you’re probably aware, when the gays are away, 99% of television shows are always about people who do not sin and who live very moral lifestyles.  

That is why my kids, when they watch wholesome, non-gay tv shows, have never realized that people sometimes cheat on tests, in work, on their partners; they've never realized that some people murder other people when they get upset, and sometimes get away with it; this is why they are unaware there are atheists as well as other religious denominations in the world that I would not approve of; they’re clueless about how people can make fun of others and say incredibly nasty things about people they don’t even know; and luckily, they have NO IDEA that people are ever lazy or don’t do what they’re supposed to do. 

Because, well… thank God themes like that are never used for storylines on television shows that people routinely watch.  Because that would probably throw me into a moral crisis or something, where I would have to admit that the idea of gay characters being an offensive thing on tv, even for a hardcore Christian, is incredibly ridiculous.

—A response to some of the more ridiculous hate discussion.  Personally, I don’t really think Bert and Ernie have to be “declared gay,” because it’s not like romance has ever been super prominent on Sesame Street, and it’s been just more of a running joke that they’re “lovers.”  

I do, however, think it is both funny and sad that gay characters are perceived by some people to be dangerous/gay agenda-d/offensive/horrible.   I mean, just an episode of Law and Order SVU (<3) is probably going to expose your kid to a lot more “offensive” ideas but no one’s going to war over the fact that it’s been airing during all times of the day for, what, a decade now?  

Even if you don't like gay characters, you have a choice to not watch the show/s, or to not allow your children to watch the show/s.   TV watching is not some God-given mandate- you don't have to do it just because it's there.  Let everyone have the ability to make that decision about what they care to watch.